The first old-school BlackBerry with a new-fangled touchscreen will go on sale later this month; just don’t expect it to be cheap.
Both Sprint and Verizon Wireless announced Monday that they’ll be selling the BlackBerry Bold 9930 for $249 with a two-year contract, a $50 premium over the latest high-end Android smartphones.
Sprint will be first out of the gates with the new, touchscreen Bold, which the carrier will offer starting this Sunday, August 21. Verizon’s Bold will arrive a few days later on August 25.
AT&T will also be getting its own version of the Bold—the BlackBerry Bold 9900, to be precise—later this month, although the carrier has yet to announce specific dates or pricing.
Billed as the thinnest BlackBerry yet, the 10.5mm-thick Bold marks the first traditional-looking BlackBerry with a full-on touchscreen—good news for anyone who prefers the old thumb-friendly BlackBerry keyboard.
The new Bold boasts a five-megapixel camera, HD video recording, and a 2.8-inch display.
Also on board: BlackBerry 7, the latest version of the BlackBerry operating system, complete with faster and “more fluid” web browsing (or so promises BlackBerry maker Research in Motion), voice-enabled search, the mobile Documents-to-Go office suite, and “BlackBerry Balance”—a feature that creates separate “work” and “play” areas on your phone.